A round-up of this week's other home news stories in brief ...
Sky HD sets to be replaced
Thousands of Sky customers are to have their set-top boxes replaced after it emerged that there was a fault with some of them.
The fault was discovered by manufacturer Pace in the first batch of boxes used to supply Sky’s high definition (HD) service.
The flaw, which does not pose a safety risk, occurred in the way some of the boxes were assembled.
“In particular, it involves the internal cabling and the quality of the connections between components.
“This means that the build quality of a box that was part of this batch may not meet Sky’s standards,” a Sky spokesperson said.
Accused could not sleep, court told
A financial adviser accused of laundering over £3 million taken in the Northern Bank raid in Belfast was not able to sleep while detained for questioning at the Bridewell Garda station in Cork, it was claimed yesterday.
Lawyers for Ted Cunningham put it to a number of gardaí who had responsibility for his treatment while in custody at the Bridewell Garda station that he was not able to sleep there following his arrest on February 17th, 2005. Several gardaí testified they had observed Mr Cunningham asleep and so recorded in the custody book.
Mr Cunningham from Farran in Co Cork denies 20 charges of money laundering including one of possessing £3,010,380 stg at Farran between December 2004 and February 2005.
Gardaí to protest outside Dáil
THE GARDA Representative Association (GRA), which represents rank and file members of the force, will today protest outside Dáil Éireann over the Government’s plans to introduce a pensions levy.
The two-hour event represents the first time members of the force have held a demonstration on any issue since the so called “Blue Flu” in 1998.
This morning at 10am members of the GRA’s central executive will assemble outside the Dáil for two hours with placards.
Four 'Irish Times' bloggers nominated for awards
Four Irish Timesjournalists - Fiona McCann, Conor Pope, Jim Carroll and Bryan Mukandi – have been included on the shortlist for the 2009 Irish Blog Awards, which are due to be held on Saturday in Cork.
Over 500 blogs have been nominated in 20 categories and each shortlisted blog has been judged on average by seven judges.
The awards have expanded significantly since they were first established by blogger Damien Mulley in 2006.
There has been a massive improvement in the quality of blogs over the years and theres a far wider range of them too,” said Mr Mulley.